Question

    You’ve got the butter, the eggs, the organic salad greens and the laundry soap. And so you make your way to the front of the grocery store, which is where you’ll face your moment of truth:

Will you step in behind the mom with a wiggly baby and a full cart? Or take your chances with the young couple you spotted arguing over the best milk in Aisle 3B?

Better make up your mind, quick. Because, faster than the guy with “just one item” who’s about to cut in line, this whole scene is going to disappear.

Amazon recently opened its own convenience store, Amazon Go, in Seattle. It’s the first of its kind: a truly cashless grocery experience in which shoppers enter through gates that look like subway turnstiles (闸机), take what they want from the shelves and exit the way they came. No carts, no lines, no waiting. The store accurately lists what you take and charges your Amazon account, efficiently delivering an electronic receipt after you’ve left. Like most things that Amazon does, this smells like inevitability. We know, as surely as we knew the day that first Amazon box showed up on the doorstep, that the future of shopping has arrived.

Like all progress, it comes at a cost. “Based on data”, says Manoj Thomas, a professor of marketing at Cornell University, “we know that when people use any abstract form of payment, they spend more. And the type of products they choose changes too.”

Decades of psychological research has reinforced the knowledge that the further we are removed from “the pain of paying,” the less we understand how much were really spending. “If you are paying by credit card,” says Thomas, “you might pause at the checkout and suddenly think,” Should I be buying this? “Or if you are paying cash, that reflection happens at the very beginning. Both will be gone with the Amazon store.” Unhealthy impulse purchases and overspending will result from it, he says. “Both are completely related because they are influenced by our impulse urges.”

Win Is Thomas advocating that we all make a run for the atm and attempt to turn back time by using old hard currency? “No, no, no,” he says.

He envisions a world in which you’ll be able to set budget or calorie limits on an app that will recognize when you pick up unhealthy or budget-busting items and will warn you that they fall outside your goals. He expresses confidence that there is some tech hero out there right now, figuring out this exact solution to keep us all on the straight and narrow.

1.What does the underlined phrase “this whole scene” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A.Customers arguing over the best item. B.Customers lining up at the checkout.

C.Customers cutting in line for the bargains. D.Customers doing shopping with their babies.

2.What might you experience if you do shopping in Amazon Go?

A.Less “pain of paying” at the checkout counter.

B.Convenient entering through subway turnstiles.

C.Overspending on more than you actually need.

D.Quicker delivering of goods to your car.

3.Manoj Thomas probably holds the view that ________.

A.abstract payment contributes to market prosperity

B.impulse consumption may be regulated with the new app

C.extra spending will surely not happen with the warning of the app

D.it is better for people to use cash or credit cards to avoid overspending

Answer

1.B

2.C

3.B

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章主要讲述了Amazon Go创建了第一个无现金商店，但是却导致了人们出现过度消费和冲动消费的现象。针对这种现象，Manoj Thomas提出建立一个app用来控制人们的这两种消费现象。

1.

词句猜测题。根据文章第三段“Better make up your mind, quick. Because, faster than the guy with “just one item” who’s about to cut in line,”你要快点做决定，因为要比那个拿着一件东西就要插队的家伙要快，可知这个场景描述的是顾客排队的景象。由此可知，划线词的意思是“顾客在收银台前排队”。故选B项。

2.

细节理解题。根据文章第四段“It’s the first of its kind: a truly cashless grocery experience”和 “No carts, no lines, no waiting. The store accurately lists what you take and charges your Amazon account, efficiently delivering an electronic receipt after you’ve left.”可知，Amazon Go创建了第一个无现金商店，在这里购物不需要手推车，不需要排队和等待，商店会准确罗列你想要的东西，并且收取你Amazon账户的现金，在你离开后把电子账单发送给你。根据倒数第三段“Unhealthy impulse purchases and overspending will result from it”他说，这将导致不健康的冲动消费和过度消费”。可知，这种无现金交易会让我们的花销超过实际上所需要的花销。故选C项。

3.

推理判断题。根据最后一段“He envisions a world in which you’ll be able to set budget or calorie limits on an app that will recognize when you pick up unhealthy or budget-busting items and will warn you that they fall outside your goals.”可知，他设想了这样一个世界，在这个世界里，你可以在一个应用程序上设定预算或热量限制，当你拿起不健康或预算超支的物品时，这个应用程序就会识别出来，并提醒你它们超出了你的预算。Manoj Thomas认为冲动购买和超支购买都受我们一时冲动的影响，所以他建议应该建立一个app用来警示我们，不要偏离我们的预算，所以冲动的消费可以通过这个新的应用程序来控制。故选B项。